STRANDED AT LONGNIDDRY. 247 



Gay.r Since then Dr Gray has changed the generic name to Cuvierius, and 

 terms the animal C. Sibbaldii* Those zoologists who do not break up the 

 great genus Balwnoptera into several smaller sub-genera, prefer to call the 

 animal Balwnoptera Sibbaldii. The Hull and Utrecht skeletons agree in pos- 

 sessing each 64 vertebrae ; but whilst the former has 16 pairs of ribs, the latter 

 has only 15 pairs. No information existed as to the external characters of 

 either of the animals from which these skeletons were obtained, so that it was 

 difficult to identify them with any of the species of whales known to zoolo- 

 gists, up to that time, only by their external appearances. 



In 1867, however, Professor Reinhardt published an important memoir, in 

 which he gave an account,! from notes furnished him by Mr Hallas, surgeon 

 to a whaling ship, of a Finner of which the Danish whalers had captured several 

 specimens. This whale was known to the Icelanders as the Steypireythr. The 

 back was blackish grey ; down the sides the colour was lighter ; the belly, behind 

 the plicae, was uniformly grey, the ridges blackish grey ; the furrows between 

 them, light grey ; the caudal fin, blackish grey on both sides ; the pectoral fins, 

 blackish grey, spotted with lighter specks on the outer surface, but milk White 

 on the inner. The baleen was uniformly black. The animal was about 80 feet 

 long, and was said to have a dorsal fin not more than 7 inches high.J No measure- 

 ments are given of the caudal or pectoral fins, or, indeed, of the proportions of 

 the other parts of the body. Mr Hallas also forwarded the skull, hyoid bone, 

 and atlas of this animal, of which Reinhardt gives figures. Further, he states 

 that the animal possessed 64 vertebrae and 15 pairs of ribs. In his remarks on 

 this whale, Reinhardt compares it both with the Balwnoptera musculus (Physalas 

 antiquorum) and B. Sibbaldii, and considers that from its osteological characters 

 it should be referred to the latter species. 



By these observations, it was clearly established that a well-defined species 

 of Finner exists in the northern seas, which differs from the common Razor-back, 

 in possessing a greater number of vertebras, a broader beak to the cranium, a 

 greyish and not a whitish belly, and a uniform black baleen, instead of one 

 mottled with various tints. In the distribution of the tints of the skin, in the 

 uniform black colour of the baleen, and in the length of the animal, the Stey- 

 pireythr obviously closely corresponds with the Longniddry whale. But what is 

 even more important for the determination of the species, the cranium, atlas, and 

 hyoid, as far as one can judge from Reinhardt's figures, are almost identical in 



* Appendix to Catalogue of Seals and Whales, p. 380. 



t Vidensk. Meddelelser fra den Naturhist, Forening iKjbbenhavn, 1867. Translated in " Annals 

 of Nat. Hist.," November 1868. 



| Although the end of the dorsal fin had been removed from the adolescent Longniddry whale 

 before my measurements were taken, yet sufficient had been left to show that this fin had been more 

 than 12 inches high. Consequently, T do not think that the shortness of the dorsal fin is so definite 

 a character as Reinhardt supposes. 



